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# emoticon

noun (an emoticon, emoticons)

«emoticon» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. A small face made from keyboard symbols, like :-) or :(, used in messages to show a feeling. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/emoticon/#m1)
2. (informal) An emoji: a little picture showing a face or thing. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/emoticon/#m2)

### In the lessons

In computing and online safety lessons, emoticons add feeling to messages; they help show if someone is joking, but can be misunderstood; phrases: «add an emoticon», «a smiley emoticon».

### Examples

- She ended her message with a smiley emoticon :-). [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/emoticon/#x1)
- Emoticons were invented before emojis. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/emoticon/#x2)
- Turn your head sideways to see the emoticon's face. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/emoticon/#x3)
- A wink emoticon ;-) shows that you are joking. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/emoticon/#x4)
- Don't use too many emoticons in a formal email. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/emoticon/#x5)
- The emoticon :( shows that you are sad. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/emoticon/#x6)

### Note

Countable. Made from «emotion» + «icon». Strictly, emoticons are made of keyboard characters; emojis are small pictures. The first known emoticon :-) was suggested in 1982.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «emoticon» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/emoticon/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«emoticon» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/emoticon.html) on Mova free.